What an interesting last couple of months it has been.
I took both of my dogs to North Carolina and Maryland for half of the month during August to reenergize and refresh. It was a wonderful time away; however, upon my return Hurricane Irma was about to make its way through altering a lot of dog-sitting plans and arrangements. I guess it is all part of the experience of having your own business!
I am not entirely sure where September went....and even October. I gave my dogs a big break from agility and shifted from therapy work to odor detection (since it can also be done indoors). While I was very eager to do therapy work, some of the restrictions and requirements were not inline with my beliefs. I am always advocating for my dogs...so in their best interest I decided to move a different direction.
Here are a couple of videos on the start of our odor detection training. We started from scratch, so the first step was teaching value for understanding that odor "rewards." Once they were starting to associate the scent (birch) with the reward I was hopeful they would stay on the odor for a longer duration of time.
WIth getting back into the swing of things (who wasn't exhausted after the hurricane!) I have taken sometime away from all training (besides just fun conditioning exercises) but am hopeful to get back on a training regimen!